Calls for indefinite general strike intensify as crisis escalates

The president of the left-wing parliamentary group CUP, Mireia Boya, has defended the call for an indefinite general strike after the imprisonment of the leaders of pro-independence organizations ANC and Omnium Cultural, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart.

In response to the arrests, at noon on Tuesday hundreds of employees from businesses across Catalonia stopped working for 15 minutes in a display of solidarity and indignation at the latest developments in this ongoing political crisis.

All activity in the Barcelona City Council and Catalan parliament has also been suspended briefly in protest to the decision made by the Spanish prosecutor.

The Barcelona mayor Ada Colau signed a decree with various pro-independence parties including CUP, ERC, right-wing PDeCAT, and the BeC, demanding the release of Sànchez and Cuixart, who have been called “political prisoners.”

The text condemns the arrests as a violation of human rights, and calls on Catalans to continue defending their rights and freedoms peacefully.

Boya said on Tuesday that a proposed general strike could continue until “the two political prisoners who have been detained and imprisoned in Madrid are released,” in a statement made to TV3, also warning that after their imprisonment without bail “dialogue is already impossible.”

Sànchez and Cuixart are being charged with sedition, accused of mobilizing citizens to protest outside government buidlings when 14 high-ranking Catalan officials were arrested by Spanish police on September 20 and 21. They are also being blamed for the organization of demonstrations outside polling stations on October 1 in order to hinder Spanish police’s efforts to put a stop to the referendum.

CUP president Boya asserted that it is up to the people to decide how to mobilize, saying that now “the conflict has been aggravated in an important way.” She also affirmed that, despite a delay after the October 1 referendum, the necessary conditions to declare a republic are already in place.

The worker’s union UGT condemned the arrests as “unjust and disproportionate.” In a statement made on Tuesday, the union emphasized that Sànchez and Cuixart had always called for peaceful mobilizations. It criticized Spain’s actions as a means "to frighten a society that is taking to the street peacefully and democratically."

Reiterating calls for mediation and dialogue, UGT has demanded that "the repression of the State in Catalonia be brought to an end" and that the Spanish police forces deployed within Catalan territory return to their points of origin.